Every last Thursday of the month, Understanding Data hosts a breakfast session. During this session, we build a strong data community in the Kempen together, where we exchange ideas and learn from one another.
Communication is at the heart of this. And a well-designed dashboard is the perfect tool for conveying information clearly and quickly.
Bij een ontbijtsessie horen natuurlijk ook koffiekoeken. We maakten hier enkele foto’s van. Welke foto maakt voor jou in één oogopslag duidelijker welke soorten koffiekoeken er zijn?
Of course, a breakfast session wouldn't be complete without pastries. We took a few photos of them here. Which photo makes it clearer to you at a glance what kinds of pastries there are?
A strong dashboard starts with a clear question
Before you create a visualization, you first need to know what you want to achieve with it.
Who will be using the dashboard? What question does it need to answer? And what decision or action should result from it?
In our example, we want to show at a glance what kinds of pastries are available so that someone can make a quick choice. That’s why it makes sense to organize the pastries by type.
The same applies to dashboards. A visualization without a clear purpose quickly adds more noise than insight.
Display what's important
More information doesn’t automatically mean more insight.
Our photos show only the pastries. We’ve left out the coffee, tea, and the rest of the table. Those aren’t relevant to this question and would only be a distraction.
Even in a dashboard, you don’t need to show everything you have. Show what the user needs to answer the question and leave out the rest.
Make it easy to compare
The way you organize information determines how quickly someone spots patterns.
By grouping pastries of the same type together, we can compare them more easily. We could also group them in a different way, such as by size or calories. Which arrangement works best depends on what we want to show.
The same applies to visualizations. Choose a format that makes comparison as easy as possible. For example, a bar chart often makes differences visible more quickly than a pie chart.
Use visual hierarchy
Not everything on a dashboard is equally important. Therefore, use position, size, and formatting to make it clear where attention should be focused.
People typically look from left to right and from top to bottom. By placing important information in a logical spot and creating a clear visual flow, users can understand what the dashboard is conveying more quickly.
Provide context
A number on its own often doesn’t tell us much. Is 250 a lot or a little? Is 12% a good result? Without context, it’s hard to say.
So, whenever relevant, provide a comparison: relative to the previous period, a target, or an average. That’s how a number takes on meaning.
Be consistent
A dashboard is easier to understand when the same types of information are displayed in the same way.
The same applies to our pastries. If each plate contains one type of pastry, but one plate suddenly combines different types, it becomes harder to understand the layout.
Consistency ensures that the user has to think less about how the information is displayed and can focus on what the information conveys.
A strong dashboard is more than just pretty charts
A dashboard doesn’t have to be filled with charts, colors, and numbers to be effective.
Its strength lies precisely in omitting what isn’t necessary and clearly presenting what is important.
Just like with our pastries: the same information can be presented in different ways. One makes it immediately clear what you’re seeing, while the other requires a bit more thought.
And that’s ultimately what a good dashboard is all about: presenting information in a way that allows the user to quickly understand what’s happening and know what to do with it.